Israeli Security Methods in U.S. Airports

Protecting U.S. Skies and Airports: Israeli Security Methods in U.S. Airports
As Gaines and Miller (2013) point out, American security forces focus on finding weapons while Israeli security focuses on finding terrorists. The difference gets to the heart of why the Israeli system is so much more efficient. However, Israel has a population of 8 million—less than that of New York City. And New York City is home to just one of many hubs and international airports in the U.S. Approximately 17 million travelers flew into Ben-Gurion Airport in Israel last year, as well—which is about a third of the number that flew into JFK (Zeff, 2017; NBC, 2018). Because of the sheer volume of travelers throughout the U.S., which dwarfs Israel’s numbers completely, the question is whether Israel’s methods can actually scale and work in a nation as big and open to the rest of the world as the U.S. The fact of the matter is, too, that Israel’s airport security is really only different from that of the U.S. in terms of place and intensity—and who is scrutinized. In the U.S. everyone is scrutinized. In Israel, most Israeli citizens are waived through after a few questions. Arabs and foreigners are questioned extensively, undergo full luggage searches and can be detained for hours—except this is not done at the airport. It is done at checkpoints on the road leading to the airport. That is why the airports themselves are not full of lines. The lines are outside the airport (Gaines & Miller, 2013). However, the special relationship between the U.S. and Israel means that the U.S. is not far behind and many American airports have implemented Israeli security methods.
Security Interviews
One of the big ways that American airports are importing Israeli security methods is through the use of security interviews. Cathay Pacific Airways, for example, has updated its terms of service to incorporate the implementation of a more stringent security process that will include security interviews for travelers: as a result, the airline “has advised travelers to arrive three hours before departure” (Haaretz & Reuters, 2017). The security interviews are conducted before the passengers arrive at the American airport and thus are like the Israeli method of interviewing travelers before they actually make it to the airport and board a flight.
Profiling
The other method that American airports have incorporated in recent years is the security method of profiling. Israeli security forces are not shy about their profiling methods (Gaines & Miller, 2013). They stop and search all Arabs and foreigners far more extensively than they do Israeli travelers. The reason is that they have profiled who the terrorists are and they have concluded that they are Arabs. There is no obeisance to the doctrines of political correctness. Rather,
Following a failed attempt to detonate a bomb at a Detroit airport in 2010 by an Arab terrorist, President Obama ordered an upgrade to American security methods: “The Obama Administration declared that citizens and residents of fourteen countries—thirteen predominantly Muslim states plus Cuba—would be subject to enhanced airport screening when flying to the United States” (Hasisi, Margalioth & Orgad, 2012, p. 518). This was deemed a necessary step in profiling travelers and can be considered a page out of the Israeli security forces playbook as it meant that “treating people differently depending on where they come from, or what passport they hold” would now be an acceptable screening method in the U.S. (Hasisi et al., 2012, p. 518).
Of course, as Hasisi et al. (2012) point out, “Israel does not admit that it employs ethnic profiling” but as their article goes on to show, regardless of whether the Israeli state admits it or not it most certainly does (p. 518)—and Gaines and Miller (2013) have shown the same thing. The only question is whether or not the method works—and judging by Israel’s security it appears that it does (Lowrey, 2010). In the U.S., the problem is that there are so many diverse people coming and going in and out of U.S. airports, people who are both citizens and foreigners, and ethnic profiling is not necessarily going to be as easy to do in the U.S. as it is in Israeli, where checkpoints are established leading up to the airport.
However, the U.S. is now using better technology as a way of taking profiling up a step. Today, travelers are creating their own profiles with fast passes that allow them to skip all the traffic of security screening that other travelers must go through. The fast pass is basically a digital pre-check in which the traveler uploads all the information that would be sought out by a security interviewer ahead of time in order to qualify for the pass. Once the pass is approved, the security check has already been rendered. By making the fast pass a pre-requisite for all fliers it would completely reduce the routine of removing belts, shoes, etc. that still take place in American airports.
Conclusion
Israeli security methods have shown themselves to be effective because they primarily profile passengers to identify terrorists whereas Americans tend to scan everyone indiscriminately to avoid being accused of profiling. The latter method leads to lines and delays. The former methods does as well—but the lines and delays are formed outside the airport. American airports are catching up, however, and beginning to adopt Israeli methods by obliging inbound airlines to conduct security interviewing and by getting passengers to profile themselves before flying with the fast pass.
References
Gaines, L. K., & Miller, R. L. (2013). Criminal justice in action. Nelson Education.
Haaretz & Reuters. (2017). U.S. Airport Security Is Becoming a Bit More Israeli Today –Here's What You Need to Know. Retrieved from https://www.haaretz.com/us-news/u-s-airport-security-rules-are-changing-today-here-s-what-you-need-to-know-1.5460568
Hasisi, B., Margalioth, Y., & Orgad, L. (2012). Ethnic profiling in airport screening: Lessons from Israel, 1968–2010. American law and economics review, 14(2), 517-560.
Lowrey, A. (2010, January 8). Foreign policy: The costs of Israel level security [Opinion]. NPR. Retrieved from https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=122352039
NBC. (2018). NYC-Area Airports Set Record for Passenger Traffic, Rank Among Worst in U.S. for On-Time Performance. Retrieved from https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/JFK-LaGuardia-Newark-Airports-Record-Passenger-Traffic-Worst-On-Time-Performance-475559363.html
Zeff, M. (2017). 2016 record year for Israeli air traffic. Retrieved from https://www.jpost.com/Business-and-Innovation/2016-record-year-for-Israeli-air-traffic-477180